The fateful moment has arrived. As the ultimatum set by the Economic Community of West African States for a possible armed intervention in Niger comes to an end, nearly 30,000 supporters of the military coup gathered in a stadium in Niamey this Sunday. A delegation of members of the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Fatherland (CNSP, which took power) arrived at the stadium to the cheers of its supporters, many of whom carried Russian flags and portraits of CNSP leaders.
This stadium, the largest in Niger and which bears the name of Seini Kountché, author of the first coup in Niger in 1974, was almost full and the atmosphere there was festive, we noted. General Mohamed Toumba, one of the leaders of the CNSP, spoke in front of the crowd to denounce those “who lurk in the shadows” and who “are plotting subversion” against “Niger’s march forward”. . “We are aware of their Machiavellian plan,” he said.
Senegal and Ivory Coast ready to intervene
This show of force comes on the day of the expiration of the ultimatum set on July 30 by ECOWAS to the soldiers who took power to restore the ousted president Mohamed Bazoum to his duties, under penalty of using force to do so. The ultimatum expires on Sunday evening and for the time being, the generals who took power on July 26 in Niamey have shown no desire to give way.
The contours of the force for a possible military intervention were “defined” on Friday by the ECOWAS Chiefs of Staff and certain armies such as Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire said they were ready to participate. The coup was condemned by all of Niger’s Western and African partners, but the Nigerien military received support from their counterparts in Mali and Burkina Faso, who also came to power through putsches in 2020 and 2022, who claim that an intervention in Niger would be a “declaration of war” on their two countries.